


Hearts in the Sand

by ZeeCatfish



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Cheating, F/M, Illustrated
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-12
Updated: 2012-08-12
Packaged: 2017-11-11 23:58:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/484342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZeeCatfish/pseuds/ZeeCatfish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The food in the three star establishment tasted bitter, and if she’d have to give the taste a name she’d call it finality.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hearts in the Sand

When Sollux had asked Aradia if she’d be willing to go along with a double date with one of his coworkers she’d immediately known. The changes in his mood, the strange perfume clinging to his clothes when he got home late, the distant look he got sometimes when he’d refuse to tell her what he was thinking about, all of them were exactly what she’d feared for months.

Feferi Peixes was a beautiful woman with a cheerful face and an infectious, bubbly laugh. Aradia had expected she’d hate her the moment she laid eyes on her. Instead she simply felt herself growing numb, every smoldering look between her boyfriend and the woman across the table from him making the gap between her and Sollux feel bigger. The food in the three star establishment tasted bitter, and if she’d have to give the taste a name she’d call it finality. 

Across the table from her sat Eridan Ampora, Feferi’s fiancé. When Aradia and Sollux had walked in she’d almost audibly heard his heart breaking, and since then he hadn’t said a word, hardly looking up from his plate. The few times she’d caught his eyes. they’d been misty with tears. 

And truthfully, she knew how he felt. This dinner was for Feferi and Sollux. They weren’t wanted here. It wasn’t how she wanted things to end, and she was sure it wasn’t how Sollux had meant to tell her, if he meant to tell her at all. 

They’d just finished the main course when she couldn’t take it anymore. Reaching up to her neck, she unclasped the shimmering red necklace Sollux had given her on their first anniversary and placed the precious jewelry on the table before him. Then she straightened out her maroon dress and rose from her seat, turning to Eridan. “I believe we should go,” she told him firmly.

A stunned silence had fallen over the table, and for a moment he just gaped at her. Then she could see something flicker in his eyes and with shaking hands he began fidgeting with his fingers. Then he pulled one of his many rings from his fingers and, like her, gingerly put it on the table. His engagement ring glistered in the light and he shook his head, putting his hands up when Feferi regained her composure and began protesting. “There aint really anythin’ to say here, Fef.”

And just like that it was over. Even as she walked away from the table Aradia could feel the weight of months of suspicion and distrust lifting from her shoulders. “I think,” she told Eridan when they stepped out of the fine restaurant, “That you should take me somewhere.” 

To her surprise he agreed.

\---

“Come on, put your shoulders in it!” she laughed, legs wrapped firmly around his legs. “Weren’t you the one bragging about what a strong man you are?”

He’d driven her out to a small beach, empty at the late hour of a cold day. There they’d sat down and tried to start a conversation. But the wounds they carried were fresh and soon the elation of having made the final decision wore off. She’d cried and he’d complained and then together they’d screamed out over the surf, shouting obscenities and complaints until they were both laughing at the sheer ridiculousness of it all.

She’d taken of her shoes and ran into the water only to scream again, this time because of how cold the water was and he’d rushed in after her, lifting her up out of the water with strength he obviously didn’t possess and they were laughing again.  
With the setting sun painting a vivid backdrop it was almost magical. The manic adrenalin coursing through the both of them, the relief and happiness and sadness and pain, the uncertainty of the future with how much and how fast things were changing, all of it fit together in a strange hymn of autumn colours and laughter, only slightly off key.

[ ](http://imgur.com/VLIK2)

She’d never really broken up with Sollux. There was more to breaking off an engagement, especially one with as many political ties as his, than returning the engagement ring. Still, not all the reason in the world felt like reason at all.

Their lips met in a sweet, gentle kiss and while nothing was alright and the future was uncertain, the kiss tasted like beginnings.

[ ](http://imgur.com/RAaEU)


End file.
